J's Notes — The on again, off again, but always understated emphasis of the greatness of Jay.

In the process of rebuilding J’s Notes I’m digging through the past and figuring out what brilliant thoughts remain brilliant and what thoughts are best left in the past.

One post that made the cut is a February, 2009 bit that gave a breakdown of Facebook users in Richmond. While it wasn’t so long ago, it wasn’t until April of that year that Facebook would break 200 million active users. By September, 2011 that number would quadruple to over 800 million active users.

So three years later, how does Richmond measure up?

Using the Facebook Ads Creator you can get an interesting snapshot about Facebook users in your area. It’s not an exact science and comparing numbers from today to three years ago is a bit misleading due to the growth of Facebook leading to an increase in the number of cities in Facebook’s database (for example: in Feb 2009 you couldn’t say you were from Fredericksburg, VA – you had to choose either Richmond or Washington, maybe a NOVA locality) and other factors at play. But it’s still a fun exercise with numbers.

2/2009

4/2012

Total Facebook Users In Virginia:

1,794,480

3,899,660

Facebook Users In Richmond:

193,240

350,900

Age

13-17 -

18,620

21,940

18-25 -

76,820

97,080

26-35 -

50,580

91,580

36+ -

43,320

140,260

Sex

Male -

77,690

156,640

Female -

108,520

190,480

Education

In High School -

18,780

8,300

In College -

31,960

19,940

VCU -

17,300

8,220 (11,360)

University of Richmond -

2,640

1,480 (2,420)

Virginia Union -

80

620 (1,140)

Virginia State -

360

320 (3,640)

College Grad -

22,800

134,520

Relationship Status

Single -

50,800

77,220

In A Relationship -

33,500

45,060

Engaged -

6,140

10,000

Married -

52,300

97,840

For Colleges, the numbers in the brackets are all Facebook users in the US who are listed as currently attending.

Gender numbers appear to be the combination of growth and a change in what information Facebook requires of users.

The shrinking college numbers could just be a shift in how Facebook is used. In 2/09 Facebook was still primarily a college playground and identifying yourself with your school at the time you were there was an integral part of the experience. As it has grown and become more public, keeping tabs on exactly when you are enrolled in what school is less important. Simply list the college in your profile, leave the graduation date for later.

Relationship status appears to just be natural growth: as the audience is larger and older, more relationships and marriages.

If you wanted you could keep breaking these numbers down and find out exactly how many people with particular interests were in the area. Anyone who’s tried to do targeted advertising on Facebook has already played with this. But anyone wanting to just see some numbers because they’re a total nerd like myself might have some fun with this as well.

Inside Facebook has some interesting numbers on Facebook’s overall users and growth as of late. What used to be limited to college kids has grown into something much more and it’s interesting to see how Facebook has evolved and will continue to evolve over the next year or so as it goes through these growing pains.

But seeing this made me think to take another peek at Facebook data for Richmond users. I do this once in a while more for personal reference than anything but I figure some other people may be interested in the data as well. All figures come from the Facebook Ad targeting system so they aren’t 100% accurate but do represent a good snapshot for RVA’s Facebook usage.